To Recovery
by Zombie-Elvis
Summary: A sequel to The Road. A little bit of fluff, some Kwamis, and an identity reveal.
The road to recovery is different for everyone. For some, it was short and sweet, with flowers and balloons and get well soon's. For others, it was lonely and long. Spouses leaving with a diagnoses, friends forgetting about them. For the unlucky, it was a gamble. Will this work this time? She just wondered which one she would be.

Marinette turned over into a warm mass with a bit of effort. She sighed happily, settling into it. Then, her new pillow stiffened. This is when she realized it had been moving before- slowly, almost like breathing.

Blinking open her eyes, she tried to take in details. The room was dark, but had large windows that displayed the dark parisian sky. Moonlight streamed in, casting a beautiful tint to the entire room, including the person she was lying on.

Marinette started to panic when she saw a blushing Adrien underneath her, and quickly tried to scramble away. That was, until she felt the burning pain through her shoulder and abdomen and let out a hiss of air.

"No! Don't move my- Marinette!" Adrien half whispered, half shouted at her as he gingerly moved to support her descent back onto the mattress. "You'll hurt yourself again." He said, softer.

All Marinette could do was stare at him, and wonder why she was hurt and how she had ended up here.

"How are you feeling? Do you need water?" He asked, moving slowly off of the bed.

"Uhm… You're f-fine- I MEAN yes, w-water is f-fine, thank you." Marinette blurted, and then moved to cover her mouth and winced.

Adrien grimaced at her volume, and at the look of pain passing over her face. Whether or not it was from her embarrassment or her injuries, he couldn't tell.

"Alright, I will be right back, but please don't move any more than necessary. I'll explain when I come back."

Marinette nodded in reply.

While he was gone, Marinette frantically searched the bed around her by patting with her good arm. "Tikki?" She frantically called, making sure to keep the volume down so that Adrien wouldn't hear her.

Tikki flew to her chosen in a rush, hugging her cheeks tightly. "I am so glad you're alright!" She said, smiling down at the teen.

"What happened? Where's the akuma?"

"Chat and Alya took care of it. I am so sorry you got hurt, I tried to protect you as much as I could. I had to detransform after lucky charm…" Tikki looked away, ashamed.

"Oh Tikki," Marinette smiled at her Kwami "you did your best. How did I end up at Adrien's though?"

"I brought you here." Adrien said, returning to hand her the glass of water.

Marinette's eyes blew wide, looking between Adrien and her Kwami like they had three heads and had said they wanted to be actors.

"Thank you, Adrien." Tikki said, smiling as she settled on the boy's shoulder.

"It's a pleasure." He replied, returning her smile with an oddly familiar grin.

Oh. _Oh. OH MY GO-_ Marinette thought, almost dropping the glass onto the bed before Adrien caught it.

"Chat?" She asked in the smallest voice the boy had ever heard.

He saw the uncertainty, the fear, and another emotion he couldn't quite identify in her eyes. Trying to calm her, he scooched a little farther away from her to give her her space.

"I'm so sorry my la- Marinette. I didn't mean to find out, but when you had those stab wounds and wouldn't wake up for me, I had no idea what to do! And then Tikki detransformed you, and there I was as Chat Noir with one of my passed out classmates and I panicked even more. Tikki told me to take you somewhere safe, so I thought since I always patched myself up that I could take care of what Lucky Charm didn't…" Adrien finished, grabbing for the back of his neck and looking away from his injured partner.

Marinette just stared for what seemed like hours. Then, tears started falling from her eyes like waterfalls.

"Mari!" Adrien said, moving towards her before stopping himself.

Suddenly he felt her hand on his arm and he was being dragged towards her.

He was bent over one side of his bed in an awkward position, as he received a one armed hug from a crying half chinese superhero. And he couldn't have been happier.

"I am so glad it's you. I am so glad you're alright." He whispered to her, causing more soft sobs to be heard.

"Kitty." was the only reply he received as she hugged him as tightly as she could with her one functioning shoulder.

"Okay, I usually love cheesy, but could we speed things up a bit? I am tired, and a cat needs it's sleep." A deep and annoying voice said from next to Tikki.

"Plagg, c'mon." Adrien whined, standing up to glare at his Kwami. "You already sleep like 22 hours a day, and the other 2 are used for your stinky camembert." His face skewed up in disgust.

The cat Kwami huffed, and folded his arms. "Only because those are the only two things worth doing. Hugging and kissing and all those other human tendencies are absolutely disgusting, and definitely not worth my time." He said, turning his nose up.

Marinette smiled, and watched as Tikki glared at the cat. "Oh really now? Because I have some stories that would say other wise, _dear._ " Tikki said, and Plagg stiffened.

The teens laughed, and proceeded to spend the rest of the night talking with their Kwamis and telling stories until they eventually fell asleep to dawn light peeking in through the windows.

Marinette was settled back on her warm pillow, not worrying about whether she would have to recover alone. She was just enjoying her time with a certain kitty.


End file.
